Intense rebel shelling of Aleppo kills more than 30 - Syria monitor

BEIRUT, June 16 (Reuters) - More than 30 people have been
killed in the most lethal rebel bombardment of the city of
Aleppo since Syria's conflict started four years ago, a group
monitoring the war said on Tuesday, an attack condemned by a
U.N. envoy visiting Damascus.

Staffan de Mistura called the shelling an indiscriminate
attack on civilians but said the government should not retaliate
by dropping barrel bombs on populated areas in the divided city.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told De Mistura the world
needed to recognise the threat of terrorism and prevent foreign
states from arming insurgents, state media reported following
their meeting on Tuesday.

While large civilian death tolls are frequently reported as
a result of Syrian army aerial bombardment of rebel-held parts
of the northwestern city, lethal shelling of
government-controlled areas is more unusual.

Diplomats and analysts tracking developments in Syria expect
intensified battles for Aleppo and other parts of western Syria
in the coming weeks after insurgent advances in the northwest,
central Syria and the south.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
34 people were killed, including 12 children, and about 190 were
wounded in the bombardment by rebels who are seeking control of
the city.

State media had said on Monday that at least 23 people were
killed. The attack targeted a mosque where children were taking
religious lessons as well as other neighbourhoods, it said.

State news agency SANA published a picture of a limp,
blood-soaked child in the arms of a man and another of an older
woman in clothes stained with blood and being attended to by
medics.

The Observatory, which tracks the conflict using sources on
the ground, said the insurgents fired more than 300 shells on
government-held neighbourhoods in Aleppo.

The army and rebels have been in a long battle for Aleppo,
which was Syria's economic and industrial hub before rebels took
over parts it in July 2012. De Mistura has previously tried to
broker a ceasefire in Aleppo.

Seizing it would be a big victory for the insurgents against
stretched government forces, which have been forced back in
other parts of Syria. The conflict has killed more than 220,000
people and driven millions from their homes since 2011.

De Mistura's office condemned the shelling, saying he was in
Damascus to urge the Syrian government to stop using barrel
bombs - cylinders packed with explosives and shrapnel.

"This indiscriminate attack on civilians in the city of
Aleppo took place at the very time when Mr. de Mistura was in
Damascus raising with the government the issue of the protection
of civilians and the urgent need to stop the use of barrel
bombs," it said in a statement.

The government should not retaliate against populated areas
by using barrel bombs, it added.

"The Syrian government ... is expected like any government
to refrain from killing its own civilians," it said.

Assad has said the military does not use barrel bombs.

"Silence towards the crimes that terrorists are committing
will encourage them to continue in their terrorism," state
television quoted him as telling De Mistura. "The world must
realise the danger that terrorism represents to its security and
stability."

Insurgents targeting the capital Damascus further south
fired at least 10 rocket-propelled grenades on Tuesday which
fell in areas near the Russian Embassy, the Observatory said. It
gave no details on casualties.
(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Alison Williams)